of a potentate enjoying his riches, like a man
accustomed to princely splendors--he whom a stroke of fortune had
suddenly lifted out of poverty to his old-time condition.

At a signal from Sonnica the guests reclined upon the purple couches
which surrounded the table, and four young girls entered the hall
bearing on their heads, with the slender grace of canephorae, little
willow baskets filled with rose-crowns. They walked with airy ease, as
if gliding over the mosaic to the sound of invisible flutes, and with
their delicate girlish hands they crowned the guests with flowers.

Suddenly the steward appeared with an irritated countenance.

"Mistress, Euphobias the parasite is trying to enter."

The guests burst into cries and protests on hearing this.

"Throw him out, Sonnica! He will make us miserable!" shouted the young
men, recalling with anger his jeers in the Forum at their dress and
manners.

"It is a shame for the city to tolerate that insolent beggar," said the
grave citizens.

Sonnica smiled, then suddenly recalling a cruel epigram which the
parasite had dedicated to her, and had recited in the Forum a few days
before, she said frigidly to the steward:

"Drive him away with a club."

The guests bathed their hands at a lavabo of perfumed water which a
slave passed from couch to couch, and Sonnica had given the order to
commence the banquet when the steward returned with a rough-knobbed club
clutched in his hand.

"I have beaten him, mistress, but he will not go. He suffers the blows,
but after each one he works his way a little farther into the house."

"And what does he say?"

"He says that one of Sonnica's feasts is impossible without the presence
of Euphobias, and that the blows are a sign of appreciation."

The woman displayed compassion; the guests laughed; and Sonnica gave the
order to admit the philosopher, but before the steward had left the
room to comply with her command Euphobias had already entered the hall,
cringing, humble, but looking at the assembled company with insolent
eyes.

"The gods be with you! May joy ever attend you, beautiful Sonnica!"

Turning to the steward he said loftily:

"Brother, now that you see that I get in anyhow, try to wield a less
heavy hand in future."

Accompanied by the laughter of the guests he rubbed his forehead on
which a lump had begun to rise, and with a corner of his time-worn
mantle he wiped off a few drops of blood close to one ear.

"Gre